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A spirit who is elevated and worshipped as wisdom as a goddess who supposedly gives wisdom to men. If you are a true believer in Messiah this should already shake you up since God says that there is no other God than himself and that we should not have other gods before us. This is the second commandment written in the famous Aseret haDibrot, Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:3-6
"You shall not have other gods before me", Parashah Yitro. Next to this another phrase "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one," is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, Parashah Vaethannan. This phrase shows that there is only one God and we should follow only Him. The name of the Greek god of wisdom called Sophia became a word meaning wisdom in the Greek language! Do you understand that Sophia is not just a word they came up with in the ancient Greek society. It comes straight from the deity called Sophia, the goddess of worship that was worshipped much in that country and even still. Not just in Greece but now, our generation all over the globe. Before I continue about Sophia, I first explain a little bit about Gnosticism, one of the major religious streams in which Sophia plays an important role in and already existed in ancient Greece. And it's striking resemblance that their Sophia has to Asherah and Shekinah.
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from gnostikos, "learned", from Greek: gnosis, knowledge) is a modern scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices found among some early Christian and non-Christian groups called "gnostic" ("learned") by Irenaeus and other early Christian leaders. In the past many scholars believed that gnosticism pre-dated Christianity, but now it is generally accepted that gnosticism developed into a coherent movement only in the second century CE.19 One of the important gnosticism beliefs and practices is:
-The Supreme Father God or Supreme God of Truth is remote from human affairs; he is unknowable and undetectable by human senses. She/he created a series of supernatural but finite beings called Aeons. One of these was Sophia, a virgin, who in turn gave birth to an defective, inferior Creator-God, also known as the Demiurge. (Demiurge means "public
craftsman" in Greek.) This lower God is sometimes called Yaldabaoth or Ialdabaoth Jaldabaoth (...) This is Jehovah, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). He is portrayed as the creator of the earth and its life forms. He is viewed by Gnostics as fundamentally evil, jealous, rigid, lacking in compassion, and prone to genocide.
-Duality of spirit and body: Spirit is of divine origin and good; the body is inherently earthly and evil. Gnostics were hostile to the physical world, to matter and the human body.
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But they believed that trapped within some people's bodies were the sparks of divinity or seeds of light that were supplied to humanity by Sophia.20
- Gnostics do not accept or believe in the Bible.
- The only proper religion for mankind is humanity itself, for it is from this humanity that God first evolved.
- God is a glorified and exalted human being.
- The concept of God is represented by two distinct and separate persons, our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother (Sophia).
- We are the literal spiritual offspring of God, and have the capacity to become just like our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother if we so choose.
- The Holy Spirit is no less than the office of the Heavenly Mother, Sophia, and it is she who inspires and guides us through our mortal life experience. 21
“Sophia is a prominent figure in Gnosticism. There are two Sophias in Gnosticism, the heavenly Sophia or wisdom of God, and her daughter, Sophia Achamoth. Valentinus, leader of a major Gnostic sect, described the heavenly Sophia as "Mother of the All" who is Grace, Silence, and Womb. The original Dyad, Sophia and the Primal Father, bring forth a couple, Nous and Truth. The divine Pleroma consists of a series of male-female aeons. The last aeon, Sophia Achamoth, plays the role of Cosmic Eve.“ 22
"Sophia ("Wisdom"), also called "the Sophia" with the article, is the Gnostic Great Mother or in Greek, meter. She is the Goddess of Heaven and the Mother of the Stars and the Hebdomas,
the Seven powers who created the world."23
Other sources about Gnosticism in relation to Sophia:
http://www.sophiaandthedragon.com/sophia/gnosticism.htm http://www.essene.com/Gospels/GnosticAndSophia.html http://www.gnosis.org/library/rosary.htm http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6723-gnosticism http://www.kheper.net/topics/Gnosticism/intro.htm http://www.iep.utm.edu/gnostic/ 20 http://www.religioustolerance.org/gnostic2.htm/ 21 http://www.truegnosticchurch.org/tgc/basic_beliefs.html 22 http://www.sophiaandthedragon.com/sophia/gnosticism.htm 23 http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/sophia.html
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Some claim that Sophia is the same as Hokhmah and the same as the Holy Spirit.
“Sophia was, and is, one of the most worshiped Goddesses. Even today, a huge Sophia cult still exists. Her name means "Wisdom". Sophia is the Greek version of her name. Others include: Hohkma (Hebrew)
Sapienta (Latin) Mother of All (Gnostic) Holy Spirit (Early Christian)”24
Is that really true? Is the Holy Spirit really the same as Sophia? Is the wisdom of God the same as the wisdom of men? Isn’t God the only one who created the heavens and the earth?
24 http://www.sistersofearthsong.com/SOPHIA/SOPHIA.html